What to do with Quarter Sawn Cherry

[HomerLee]

I usually find most of my materials at estate sales/shop closing sales, etc. I recently went to a shop sale and picked up a quantity of quarter sawn cherry for $2/bd. ft. Now I am wondering why I bought it. I realize quarter sawn is stable but it doesn't have a lot of figure. Anybody have experience with it? What things have you made with it?

Thanks, Homer

[R Clark]

Quarter sawn cherry with no figure?  Hmmmm...

My first thought is maybe it's not quarter sawn cherry.

My second thought is that if it's really bland, at $2 board foot, it's still 1/3rd cheaper than I can get poplar around here, so I might use it as a secondary wood for drawer boxes, dust frames, and the like.  Regular cherry around here is over $5/bd ft.

Might also make good kitchen utensils and other small projects.  I finished making this year's kitchen utensil Christmas stocking stuffers just yesterday.  Used some cherry that I pulled from my father-in-law's firewood pile.

[Derek Cohen]

Sounds perfect for drawer sides.

Regards from Perth

Derek

[LongLook]

I usually find most of my materials at estate sales/shop closing sales, etc. I recently went to a shop sale and picked up a quantity of quarter sawn cherry for $2/bd. ft. Now I am wondering why I bought it. I realize quarter sawn is stable but it doesn't have a lot of figure. Anybody have experience with it? What things have you made with it?

Thanks, Homer

A number of years ago Garrett Hack built a quarter sawn cherry sideboard that was published in FWW.  Spectacular piece IMHO from QS materials.

[handi]

Is it rough or S4S? Have you tried wiping with mineral spirits to see what it might look like finished? Wood can often surprise and some of the "deepest" grain chatoyance I have ever seen looked like "plain" wood before finishing.

Photos may be helpful.

As stated above, at $2 a bf, it is a great price even "plain".

[Hank Knight]

Here is an oilstone box I made from some quarter sawn cherry and a strip of bloodwood. I ran across the cherry in my firewood pile and quartered it into thin boards on my bandsaw. I think it's pretty, not extravagant, but with a delicate figure.

IMG_1857 by Hank Knight, on Flickr

IMG_1858 by Hank Knight, on Flickr

[Timberwolf]

Here is an oilstone box I made from some quarter sawn cherry and a strip of bloodwood. I ran across the cherry in my firewood pile and quartered it into thin boards on my bandsaw. I think it's pretty, not extravagant, but with a delicate figure.

IMG_1857 by Hank Knight, on Flickr

IMG_1858 by Hank Knight, on Flickr

......................
Nice work Hank...

[KingwoodFan1989]

Here is an oilstone box I made from some quarter sawn cherry and a strip of bloodwood. I ran across the cherry in my firewood pile and quartered it into thin boards on my bandsaw. I think it's pretty, not extravagant, but with a delicate figure.

IMG_1857 by Hank Knight, on Flickr

IMG_1858 by Hank Knight, on Flickr

I really like how that looks! The figure is quite noticeable on the top, especially on the underside. The tight linear grain that makes up most of the figure really goes well with the shape of the box. It looks "clean".

To the OP, I'd say my favorite application for woods that have straight grain (as you see in rift sawn boards and some quarter sawn boards) but are otherwise bland is to have them be the main wood in a project and complement them with a contrasting wood that is rare and/or has spectacular grain and figure.

Try surfacing some of it, sand it, and then put some mineral spirits on it to see how the grain will look under a finish. It might come alive...you never know! If it doesn't come alive, try fitting it into a project along with a contrasting figured wood. If it does...well...all the better!

[DaveParkis]

I made a sofa table with QS cherry a couple years ago. The wife loved it.

[Bibliophile 13]

I was able to get a small quantity of QS cherry a few years ago. I built quite a few things from it, including a bed frame and a tool chest. In both cases, I opted for frame-and-panel construction, in which I used the cherry for the frames and lighter, figured wood for the panels. I was pretty pleased with the results.

I wish I could get more, but that lumber pile is long gone now.